Things That Go Boom, from PRX and Inkstick Media, is accepting original audio documentary pitches from experienced audio creators for an upcoming season focused entirely on nuclear security.
Things That Go Boom is a women-led podcast that digs into the global security stories you’ve never heard — but should. Through immersive documentary storytelling, sharp explainers, and conversations with leading experts, we explore how national security shapes everyday life. Our episodes are highly scripted, deeply reported, and richly sound-designed. Reporters weave in and out of each story, while host Laicie Heeley guides listeners through the bigger questions.
Please, please, please listen to the show before you pitch.
Nuclear Security, Right Now
When many people think about nuclear issues, they think about history: the Cold War, duck-and-cover drills, or Oppenheimer.
But the nuclear age isn’t over.
Nuclear weapons are being built, modernized, transported, stored, and dismantled today. Nuclear energy has become a tool of geopolitical leverage and a target in modern war. Communities continue to live with contamination from past programs while new facilities, waste sites, and weapons systems reshape local economies and landscapes.
We’re producing a season that tells these stories through the people living them.
We’re especially interested in local reporters with deep knowledge of the communities they’re pitching. We also welcome ideas from journalists whose own communities are directly affected by the systems they cover.
We’re looking for narrative-driven, character-rich stories about:
- communities near nuclear weapons production, storage, testing, cleanup, or waste sites
- workers inside the nuclear weapons or nuclear energy industries
- environmental contamination and long-term health impacts
- secrecy, whistleblowers, and barriers to public oversight
- local debates over modernization, new reactors, uranium mining, waste storage, or military expansion
- how nuclear politics shape everyday life in unexpected ways
- the intersection of nuclear issues with Indigenous rights, labor, climate, public health, or democracy
- the lived realities of deterrence, disarmament, or nuclear brinkmanship
We’re not looking for:
- Cold War retrospectives
- biographies
- broad explainers about deterrence theory
- stories that stay at the policy level without strong human characters
We’re looking for stories that surprise us—stories that reveal something listeners haven’t heard before.
Payment
We pay $5,000 USD for these highly produced documentaries. This is a flat fee.
To pitch
Please email lheeley@inkstickmedia.com with the subject line:
TTGB Pitch — Nuclear Security
Include:
- Your pitch
- How you plan to gather audio on location, including three field sounds you expect to record
- What original reporting this story requires. What do you hope to uncover that hasn’t already been reported?
- Your experience using Descript and which DAWs you work in
- Links to previous documentary, investigative, or sound-rich work
- When you could begin reporting and your estimated completion timeline
Our expectation is that contributors come with significant reporting and technical audio experience.
We’re excited to hear your ideas.